We still have about a month left of homeschool for the year, but we're definitely looking forward to being done. We start the year on the day after Labor Day (just like I did as a kid), so we usually don't finish until mid June. Some people do school throughout the year, taking breaks as they need to. I like a distinct beginning and end to my year, and a lot of time in one chunk to hear myself think. We're taking the summer off from homeschool, but also from gymnastics and as many other things as we can. It's a time for the kids to have plenty of unstructured time, time for me to relax for once and have some fun time (I'm a work before play type of person, usually), and time for me to get some projects worked on that I don't have time for during the year. The last couple of years I haven't done so well on the projects, but hopefully I'll do better this year. I hope to make a serious dent in one or two of them.

As the kids get older, we'll give them summer projects as well. We'll work together to figure out something they're very interested in that they'd want to delve deeply into. I don't think we'll do that this year, but perhaps once they are 10 or 11.

Then, once the end of August hits, we'll have had so much time off from school that it's an exciting thought to start up again. This is important, as that momentum has to carry us as far into the year as possible. It usually carries me until late winter or early spring, which isn't too bad, when you think about it.